How to Return to Work Safely
Ways for you and your employer to help avoid fresh outbreaks as the economy restarts
Most people have little control over when or whether they can — or have to — go back to work, as health officials, politicians, and companies make decisions about restarting the economy. But there are several steps many workers can take, particularly office workers, to reduce the risk of infection for themselves and co-workers when they do go back. These measures dovetail with preventive steps bosses and business owners can take in order to avoid fresh outbreaks and keep their workers safe.
Beyond ensuring adequate testing and contact tracing for Covid-19, the most important measure to help prevent the spread of the disease in the workplace involves bringing only critical workers back initially — the minimum needed to get a given business rolling, says Joseph Allen, DSc, assistant professor of exposure-assessment science at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Beyond that, the solutions are many, and they should all be employed. “There’s no silver bullet here,” says Allen, a forensic investigator of sick buildings, in which employees fall ill due to mold, bacteria, or other pathogens that often prove difficult to find, and co-author of the new book Healthy Buildings.
